Took down my Alley Project show the other day. I think it was a raging success. Countless people, known and unknown to me said they really enjoyed it, loved the idea, was about time people started paying attention to alleys. “I walk down the alley instead of the street all the time!” a lot of people at the opening said.

Mt. View alley.

I have a lengthly ‘to do’ list right now. This year has been so crazy. I am going to take stock of everything, take some time for a thorough Spring housecleaning and work on some unresolved issues. [That all sounds rather cliche-ridden, but it is true!]

I’m thinking about what sort of photo project to tackle next. I take a lot of photos of houses and apartment buildings. And I was thinking, I wonder what it would be like to take six months and move into a small building, maybe eight or twelve units, and try to get to know the people who live there in the other apartments? And photograph them, inside and outside the building; and record some details of their lives in photos and words. How could I pull this off, in a lovely and respectful way without seeming weird to the people I’m depicting? Is it even possible? I’m going to toss this around some more and talk to some other people about it.

Posting here has been very light lately as I’ve been working on my first solo photo exhibit. It’s just about ready to roll. I also self-published a book with all the images from the show plus a few others. I had a lot of fun the last year or so sneaking around in alleys and taking the photos.

Kind of exciting! We’ll see if these alley scenes are ready for prime time.

Update 3-21-09:

They WERE ready, as it turns out! Very well attended and people really liked the work! [It wasn’t one of those openings where everyone is socializing and not paying much attention to the art.] So much for crippling self-doubt. I couldn’t be happier — a lot of nice compliments. Many people commented at how much different street fronts are from alleys. The back sides of properties are so much more revealing of owners’ tastes and personality disorders.

One of the goals for this blog was to put up one photo every single day [though, I acknowledged at the time that might be too ambitious]. I’ve really been slacking lately, though.

The weather has been mostly uninspiring. A long time ago when I was working on the yearbook staff at college, someone asked me how I consistently shot rolls of sharp, high contrast frames. I told him, I only take photos when it’s sunny. I still prefer to do so [although partly cloudy is usually more interesting than a cloudless day]. And morning and evening are a lot more interesting than mid-afternoon because you get long shadows! Morning is a particularly good time to shoot landscapes in Anchorage, because hardly anybody is an early riser here, so you can go about your business with less interference.

One shouldn’t wait around for the weather to turn. It gets frustrating. I don’t know how many times I’ve looked out the window, seen perfect conditions for that photo I’ve been thinking about… ran around getting ready as quick as I can, and on the way there it clouds up! If I’d waited for good weather I wouldn’t have taken any photos in Anchorage last summer.

I need to take inspiration from Jonathan Richman, who said, “We need to learn to play with our guitars broken, and it’s raining.” OK, then… Monday through Friday this week I’m making good on my photo per day pledge!